Panasonic Launching Raboo E-Reader in Japan, Landing Next Month?

E-readers are getting pretty popular these days, and if you love reading books, then Panasonic may just have the tablet for you. They’re planning to launch an Android-based e-reader in Japan, called the Panasonic Raboo. “Raboo” comes from Rakuten Books, Japan’s largest e-commerce company. Rakuten Books will offer around 10,000 e-books for download from the launch of the device, and that number will surely climb.

Panasonic Japan will launch it on August 10, and it’ll cost around $445. Sadly for users here in the States, the Raboo will be exclusive to Japan, at least for the time being. But it’s not so bad, as the tablet doesn’t have access to the Android Market anyway, and it only comes with 16 preinstalled applications. In any case, the specs aren’t that impressive, as you can see below.

Android 2.2

7-inch LCD screen with 1024×600 resolution

8GB internal memory

1.3MP web cam

microSDHC/SDHC card slots

USB port

XMDF file support

IEEE 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi

Bluetooth 2.1+EDR

Up to 6 hours of battery life

With that being said, we have a few questions. First of all, could this be Panasonic’s first shot against B&N and their wildly popular Nook Color? Do you think Panasonic should stick to making televisions and Blu-Ray players, and leave the Android tablets to the experts? Leave a comment below!

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